Colleagues
Mike Cross
In January 1958, on the advice of the Oxford University Appointments Board, I applied for the post of assistant master to teach English and Geography at Calday Grange Grammar School in Wirral. Several months passed without a reply and my search for my first teaching post seemed to be proving fruitless. I was beginning to get desperate for a job and, with finals looming, I noticed in a trawl through The Times Educational Supplement during the Easter vacation that the very same post I had applied for three months earlier was still being advertised.
I wrote a cheeky letter to the Headmaster of Calday stating that since I had had neither acknowledgement nor reply to my January application, I could only assume that he had not received it because, if he had, he would not have hesitated to appoint me. A characteristically courteous reply from Eric came by return of post. He stated that he had indeed received my application but was unable to proceed with it at the time. Although he had notified university appointments boards of the impending vacancy, that was well before official sanction for an increase in staff to meet Calday's post-War "bulge" had been given by the then Cheshire Education Committee. Interviews, he told me, were to take place shortly and my name was on the shortlist.
Thus it was, one afternoon in May 1958, I found myself appointed to join the staff of Calday the following September when, thanks to Eric's faith in me, I began 32 happy and rewarding years at the school. Waiting for me in my common room pigeon hole on my first morning was a handwritten letter from him. In it he welcomed me to Calday, telling me that his door was always open. I still have that letter. I made much use of that "open-door" offer and of the wisdom of his advice during my first few years in the profession. I can recall a number of occasions after school when, no doubt with more pressing business to occupy him, Eric patiently sat and listened and advised me as I began to find my feet as a young schoolmaster. I owe Eric Hawkins a great deal.
Mention has been made elsewhere of his love of music and of the visit of the school choir to Hameln in 1960. It was as a result of this that Eric gave me another opportunity. He explained that the annual school play would take place but, as many of the potential cast were in the sixth form and likely to be preparing for the Hameln trip, for that year only the play would be a junior one and he would like me to produce it. (I had had a lot to do with school productions when I was at school and somehow he had got to know of it.) I jumped at the opportunity he was offering me and in so doing began 30 fulfilling years of directing the annual production at Calday. We had no proper stage for several of my subsequent productions, but that was no problem for Eric. He merely telephoned heads of other local schools, to inform them that we needed a stage and that he and I were coming to inspect and assess the suitability of theirs for our productions. When, for Moliere's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, he discovered that I was faced with the worry of the expense of obtaining a harpsichord, Eric lost no time in arranging for one to be hired.
By 1958, thanks to Eric's leadership qualities, Calday had recovered from the disastrous regime of his predecessor. He had overseen and encouraged a number of innovations. The school was rid of the rigidness of traditional grammar school streaming into A, B, C and D streams. A different system was introduced. This was exemplified by the introduction, in conjunction with the Department of Psychology of Liverpool University, of aptitude testing to discover which boys (and, emphatically, not the least able ones) were suited to study engineering linked with "industrial studies". This combined area of study, devised at Calday, was in itself ahead of its time. Likewise he gave his full support for the purchase of a school bus (an ancient Bedford 29 seater) which was "cared for" by the Engineering Department until, on its last legs, it was replaced by a larger one: "Linda".
Calday's language laboratory, one of the first in the country, was another development. This, of course, was no surprise considering Eric's passion for languages, as was his idea of long-term exchanges not only of able pupil modern linguists but also of staff in the modern languages department. It was fitting that in 2000 Calday's new language teaching block should be named after him.
Staff, parents and pupils were motivated by Eric to work towards the construction of a replacement sports pavilion. Fund-raising days were organised and everyone was exhorted to "Be a Brick and Buy a Brick" with the added incentive of signing one's name on the purchased brick which would become part of the fabric of the building. But Eric was also a "hands on" leader. He was to be seen in the regular working parties of boys, staff and parents who helped in its construction. Perhaps then he could be indulged when he decided that the pavilion's upper room designed originally as a meeting-cum-lecture room should become the music room, for music was Eric's other great love.
Work on the pavilion was scarcely complete when Eric, after a visit to another grammar school in mid-Cheshire which had a heated swimming pool, decided that our freezing cold pool (an excellent breeding site for frogs and a receptacle for dead leaves) should be replaced with a heated one. This was typical of Eric's decisiveness: "The important thing is not so much the decision itself but the courage to take the decision". And so, in conjunction with Cheshire County Council, a completely new building was eventually constructed, housing heated pool and changing rooms. It was also available for use by other schools and organisations in the district.
I am told that when officials at County Hall in Chester picked up the telephone and heard the words, "Hawkins here", their immediate reaction was "Oh, my God, what have we done wrong now!". One of the things that had been "done wrong" was the failure to return to the school one of its playing fields which had been requisitioned for agricultural use during the Second World War. This was another battle that Eric, a veritable "human dynamo", fought and won.
Eric passionately believed in developing understanding between young people of different nationalities as a small step towards a better world. He was prominent in the West Kirby branch of the United Nations Association, and school assemblies on United Nations Day were especially important to him. After a visit to West Africa, on behalf of his professional association Calday welcomed black African students to the sixth form. This was not before Eric, upon his return, hosted a "West African evening" in the pavilion's upper room for colleagues and wives (only one woman on the teaching staff in those days!) . On that social occasion, he described his African experiences and attempted to lead us (not very successfully) in a dance he had learned while over there.
On top of all his innovations and creativity at Calday, Eric managed to find time to serve on the Plowden Commission which was formed in 1963. In the recommendations of this Commission, it is possible to detect a flavour of Eric's educational philosophy gained in no little measure from his experience as headmaster of Calday. The recommendations of that Commission were to have a major influence upon the direction that primary education took in this country for much of the rest of the Twentieth Century.
The staff during his time at Calday were generally united, and loyal to him: the school's ethos was collegiate, we all "pulled our weight". Nevertheless, as in all organisations, there were occasions when the resident common room cynic criticised some decision from "on high". Once, upon hearing one such jibe, my wise head of department took me aside and said, "Take no notice. Hawkins is the best headmaster you will ever serve under". And he was right.